init scaffolding should prompt for installing common plugins (TypeScript and markdown)

[thescientist13]

Summary

Coming out of #1253, I think to continue making the Init scaffolding tool more valuable, we should add prompts to auto install / configure

• TypeScript
• markdown (should probably be done after standalone unifiedjs based markdown plugin #1247 )

Something like

➜  Workspace npx @greenwood/init@latest
Need to install the following packages:
  @greenwood/[email protected]
Ok to proceed? (y) y
-------------------------------------------------------
Initialize Greenwood Template ♻️
-------------------------------------------------------
(node:57730) ExperimentalWarning: The Fetch API is an experimental feature. This feature could change at any time
(Use `node --trace-warnings ...` to show where the warning was created)
? Would you like to use TypeScript? (Use arrow keys)
❯ Yes (default)
❯ No

? Would you like to use markdown? (Use arrow keys)
❯ Yes (default)
❯ No

Details

In addition, we should probably start prompting for an output directory, or at least defaulting to

? Project name you like to use markdown? (type)
❯ my-app (default)

We might also want to move the template prompt to a selector as well, just to keep the experience consistent.

? Would you like to use a template? (Use arrow keys)
❯ No (default)
❯ Blog
❯ ...

If possible, we should try and tackle #1050 / #787 at the same time

[lschierer]

There should also be some documentation in the website about using Typescript with Greenwood. Things like where you can import type definitions from for the various data structures so that you can take advantage of the type safety of typescript. If the project has any recommendations for tsconfig.json settings to maximize compatibility, or to avoid incompatibility, that should be noted. If there are recommendations for configuring Rollup or the any other part of the toolchain for the best user experience, that would be useful as well, even if only as an example.

[thescientist13]

Yeah, good call outs and thanks for the feedback!

There should also be some documentation in the website about using Typescript with Greenwood

We actually have a new website launching next week which definitely aims to improve not only the overall presentation of Greenwood itself, but the Information Architecture, to make these sort of things more discoverable at a glance. In particular TypeScript will get a dedicated page / menu item on the side nav.

Right now we do have some documentation related to our TypeScript plugin but its buried in a table of contents on a not so obvious page, and you can find our TS plugin README docs here

If the project has any recommendations for tsconfig.json settings to maximize compatibility, or to avoid incompatibility, that should be noted.

I think the main thing will be that as long as Greenwood's TS plugin support whatever recommendations the library you're using supports, that would our ideal place to be. For example, Lit has recommendations for using decorators in TS, and for sure for something like Lit, we can link out to their recommended settings.

If there are recommendations for configuring Rollup or the any other part of the toolchain for the best user experience, that would be useful as well, even if only as an example.

For Rollup, we do offer a Greenwood plugin API for that, which you can check out here.

If its just transformations you are looking for, in most cases it can probably be solved with a resource plugin. If its specific to CSS we do have a PostCSS plugin, or for JS we have a Babel plugin.

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Our next phase of work, once we have the new release and website behind us, will be to focus on overall "ecosystem compat", which would definitely include tasks like this, to better support TypeScript for Greenwood itself.